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A man told me he became inspired after hearing a class about the power of answering אמן יהא שמיה רבה מברך... with kavana . It is a great praise that we give Hashem and it has the power to change decrees. He had been struggling for months trying to close a large business deal. One party involved was being very stubborn and not allowing it to go through. It seemed like they had hit an insurmountable roadblock. The man strengthened himself saying, “People are not in charge of holding back business deals, only Hashem is and if Hashem is holding it back it must only be for my best.” He decided to think about that while praising Hashem during the words יהא שמיה רבה מברך in Kaddish. The next time he was in shul, he said those words with great kavana . About an hour later, the party who was holding back the deal called him saying he decided he would proceed if certain things would be done. The man said it was amazing, he hadn’t been in contact with him for two weeks and right after the יהא שמיה רבה he called. He continued having kavana the entire week and, baruch Hashem, on Thursday of that week the deal was finally closed. It’s so nice to see a glorious end to an emunah story, but as we know, things do not always happen that way. Sometimes people respond with emunah but don’t receive the salvation they were hoping for. They must know, the response they had is the greatest gain. Hashem will bring the yeshua if and when the time is right, but the rewards for the response will be paid for all eternity. We can’t imagine the value of having even one heroic emunah response. A man sent me an email a while back and at that time he did not want the email to be publicized. He wanted to wait at least 2 years before publicizing it. And now, that time has come. I do not know any details to the conclusion of the story he told, but in my mind, the response itself is the whole story. He said that he had gone through a divorce that he did not really want. And to make matters worse, one of his children, a daughter, took sides with her mother and refused to have any communication or contact with him. He used to be so close to that daughter and then, all of a sudden, all communication had to end with her. The pain of losing his wife and his daughter was overwhelming. He entered into a darkness which he never experienced before. People tried to give him chizuk but he could not be consoled. One day, he saw a talmid chacham in his shul reading the book Living Emunah. He inquired about it and the rabbi told him it had a tremendous influence on improving the quality of his life and he suggested that he should get it as well. The man went to get it the next day and never put it down. And then, read Volume 2 afterward. He said the following in the email, “I felt so distant from the ba’al bitachon that is described in the book, but nevertheless I tried to live the lessons the book was teaching. It was nothing short of a miracle that my attitude in life started to improve. I stopped constantly sulking and, once again held my head up, and for the first time in my life, I looked forward to praying. Every day I would read and reread and I became a different person. I clearly see that Hashem is in charge of all events that take place and He loves me more than my parents and that everything He does is good. I can’t exactly see how my daughter distancing herself from me is good, but I have no questions. I trust that He is doing everything for my own benefit. I have recently discovered that my daughter got engaged and I was told by someone else that I would not be allowed to attend the wedding. Before I learned emunah, that news would have devastated me. Now, I pray that my daughter should build a bayit ne’eman . I also pray to Hashem that He will allow me to attend the wedding, but if He doesn’t I will accept it and on the night of the wedding I will dance alone in my apartment. A while back I told my rav that if I would not be allowed to attend my daughter’s wedding, I would appreciate it if he wouldn’t go as well. After learning emunah, I begged the rabbi to disregard what I told him and rather participate in any simcha my daughter makes. Why should I prevent Hashem’s ratzon ? I even told the rav that I would be willing to pay for the wedding, even if I couldn’t attend.” That was basically the end of the email. I hope that man was able to dance at his daughter’s wedding. But even if he wasn’t, his emunah response was his greatest gain, something that he will be rewarded for l’netzach netzachim .